In an effort to stay competitive and recruit top talent in the digital era, companies are implementing new technologies at scale, automating legacy processes, and digitizing customer – and employee – interfaces.

In this new issue of HR2025, Mercer experts examine the challenges new developments such as these pose for HR leaders around the world, and how HR can help build a workforce for the future.

We bring you insights on the factors shaping the workplace – from the push towards mass customization to data-based predictions – drawn from Mercer’s 2019 Global Talent Trends Study of more than 7,300 voices globally, and we explore what HR can do to harness these changes.

We also take a look at next-generation career frameworks and how they help HR build a visual guide to reskilling in an age of automation. We explore how organizations can shift the way they reward employees to drive retention, engagement and business performance. And from a communications and engagement perspective, Rhonda Newman and Patrick Hyland consider the implications of a multigenerational workforce on employee motivation, and what comes next after engagement.